The present invention refers to a transfer device in a press, for the stepwise transport of workpieces through the processing stations of a tool, comprising transport bars which are disposed laterally with respect to said tool and which are provided with grippers for said workpieces and are displaceable longitudinally and transversally in a reciprocating, cyclic movement. In each working cycle, said transport bars perform a closed rectangular movement by advancing a number of seized workpieces to the following station of the tool in a first step, then being laterally retired from said tool, longitudinally returned, and moved towards said tool again in order to seize the workpieces. In the process, considerable accelerations and decelerations and correspondingly high forces of inertia will result, so that the working cadence of said press is limited by the rigidity and the stability of said transfer device. Relatively narrow limits are thus set since any increase of the rigitiy and of the mechanical deformation stability of the transport bars leads to an increase of weight which in turn results in an increase of the forces of inertia.